Eleni Gebre Medhin
| Eleni Zaude Gabre-Madhin | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
| Nationality | Ethiopian American |
| Alma mater |
Stanford University Michigan State University Cornell University |
| Occupation | Economist |
Eleni Zaude Gabre-Madhin is an Ethiopian economist and a former Chief Executive Officer of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX). She has had many years of experience working on agricultural markets – particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa – and has held senior positions in the World Bank, the International Food Policy Research Institute (Washington), and United Nations (Geneva).
Eleni was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She grew up in three different African countries including Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. She speaks fluent Swahili, English, Amharic and French. She has a PhD in Applied Economics from Stanford University, master's degrees from Michigan State University and bachelor's in economics from Cornell University. Eleni was selected as "Ethiopian Person of the Year" for the 2002 ET calendar year (2009/2010 Gregorian) by the Ethiopian newspaper Jimma Times.
She was the main driving force behind the development of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX). Whilst working as a researcher for the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) she examined agricultural markets for many years and noticed, as had many others, that whilst in some years or regions there were severe shortages or droughts in others there were surpluses or bumper harvests. Specifically in her survey of grain traders in 2002, she found that a key factor was the lack of effective infrastructure and services needed for grain markets to function properly. Traders often failed to have access to sufficient credit, information about the market, transportation and other vital resources and contract compliance was difficult to enforce. In 2004 she moved home from the US to lead an IFPRI program to improve Ethiopia's agricultural policies and markets. Specifically she undertook the important role of coordinating the advisory body developing the ECX. She became CEO of the new exchange in 2008, and argued that "(W)hen farmers can sell their crops on the open market and get a fair price, they will have much more incentive to be productive, and Ethiopia will be much less prone to food crises" .... and that the "ECX will allow farmers and traders to link to the global economy, propelling Ethiopian agriculture forward to a whole new level."
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Wikipedia